Anarchist, why do you have such a liberal conception of the state and why do you not recognize that any anarchist society, by necessity, will require organizations that will, whether you call them state orgs or not, suppress the exploiting classes of the old society?

Here is the Marxist(leninist-maoist) conception of the state -

the state is an instrument of class rule, i.e the current state is a state of and run by the exploiters, for the purpose of ruling the exploited. The socialist state is a state run by the exploited - to eliminate the exploiters and the ideology of the exploiters.

If you do not have a state in some form or other - you cannot consolidate working class rule and you cannot reach communism. The bourgeoisie does not disappear overnight, and neither does it's ideology. Class struggle does not cease and end upon the establishment of working class rule - whatever form that may take, "stateless" socialism or not. It instead, intensifies.

If you do not suppress the resistance of the exploiters, or do not even give them reason to resist, what you will end up with is the re-establishment of the capitalist state and the destruction of any established communes.

While it is true that the USSR and the PRC did not handle things entirely correctly and what they constructed was a) influenced by bourgeois ideology and b) fell into the hands of a new capitalist class, they produced more valuable insight, were more material help to the people than practically any short-lived anarchist projects. Because of these experiments - we know where they went wrong and we know what we can do to combat this - communists are not "people who want to be ruled" - communists are "people who are sick of being ruled and see marxism-leninism-maoism as the best route to liberation".

What opposition do you have to the mass organizations that constitute a new state set up by peasants under the political leadership of Maoists to oppose capitalist governments, such as those in the Philippines and Peru? Who is being ruled by them? Who benefits by them?

[deleted] wrote at November 8, 2017 at 8:08 PM
(edited at February 10, 2018 at 2:32 PM)

But to imply "there is no authority" is wrong - if there is no authority then the one who wishes to restore their authority can simply go and re-assert their authority. Naturally some authority must exist to stop the capitalist authority from re-asserting itself.

To regard the state as an instrument of oppression without noting who's oppression is to have a liberal, idealist conception of the state that obscures class relations.

What is your issue with current revolutionary communist movements in the poorest parts of the world? Would you like to take it up with the people involved with them?

Certainly Marx was wrong on many aspects - but what issue do you take with the millions upon millions of people who were and are involved in genuine communist revolutionary movements and benefit from them? Why don't you go pose this question to them? Why do you seek to limit communism to a movement of leaders, rather than a movement of people? Why do you outright ignore the mass element and only bring it up with false concern?

Self defense implies there is someone who would seek to attack you and will not relent - call it what you like, but all the same it constitutes a shift in power relations - no longer can the attacker assert their dominance as an equal or greater force has hit back at them.

[deleted] wrote at November 8, 2017 at 8:05 PM
(edited at February 10, 2018 at 2:32 PM)

Fascism is just as bad as anti-fascism, anarchism is just as bad as capitalism, really the only thing left for you to do is become a liberal and wallow in a sense of negative peace. At least then you will have the moral high ground and never have to oppress anyone.

[deleted] wrote at November 8, 2017 at 8:10 PM
(edited at February 10, 2018 at 2:32 PM)

Are you an anarchist who has never experienced genuine oppression or are you a petit-bourgeois liberal who is afraid of the rule of the poorest sections of society over the rest

What respect should i have for someone who doesn't respect my humanity. Why should i give a fuck about some cop who kills people in my community, who makes them homeless, who enforces the oppression of private property, of capital? Why should i care about the wellbeing of a slumlord who charges me extortionate rates and doesn't care if i'm homeless or not?

Seriously, what the fuck are you fighting if not against oppression and oppressors. Who are you fighting for. What are you doing in concrete terms. Who the fuck are you helping with this rhetoric of "please consider the feelings of the nazis, the landlords, the police and the bosses.".

Defasher wrote at November 8, 2017 at 8:25 PM
(edited at November 8, 2017 at 8:26 PM)

So many strawmen. Anarchists are on the front lines dealing with cops, slumlords and fascists everyday. You lot just want the cops to work for your party. And every time anarchists lead a revolution, MLs teamed up with fascists to murder us... because you'd rather have a fascist state than no state.

And so are communists. You haven't said anything of what you make of existing revolutionary movements lead by communists, such as in the Philippines or in India, or in Turkey. Instead you wish to pursue a point about why communists "want to be ruled" just like "fascists, monarchists, conservatives" etc. I do not dispute that anarchists do good work, and i hate ML revisionists who claim china to be "socialist", Cuba as "socialist", Venezuela "socialist" Norway "socialist" etc etc, who abhor all criticism of Stalin, of the past, who disregard the imperialist ambitions of Russia and China.

Ultimately I like anarchists more than most MLs, but I don't have much interest in being ruled, i'm more interested in liberation and making it so that me and people around me don't have to struggle to survive, and that the world doesn't burn, that the entire population of the world doesn't drown, die in nuclear war, etc etc.

I do apologize if i got annoyed, engaged in personal attacks - but it's rather tiring seeing these arguments again and again while hardly seeing any engagement with the real work done by ordinary communists, who are actually real genuine people and not people too ignorant to see that they are being ruled, or whatever.

Revolutions lead by communists are counter-revolutionary by definition. The revolution can only come by working class action to actually be communist, one could even argue that you don't need communists to achieve communism.

What do you think of existing revolutionary movements. I do not care what you think of what happened in the past. Tell me what you think of the work done by Maoists in the philippines. Simple question.

They want to end imperialist rule over the Philippines, they want to overthrow and put an end to semi-feudal semi-colonial rule, they want to build the people's revolutionary army, people's self defense, to implement agrarian reform, to ensure sustainability, to put an end to deforestation, pollution, etc - to ensure self-determination for oppressed nations, to advance the revolutionary emancipation of women, LGBT folks, etc etc, to build schools, hospitals, to end homelessness, you know, that sort of stuff :)

The documentaries i linked at the end of my second post show it best, lol. Let me link them again ( you will need to enable subtitles for Buhay Komunista, the first link )

If you do not want to watch documentaries, it is also outlined here https://www.reddit.com/r/RevPH/wiki/index and you can ask people on that subreddit, many of whom are involved in the movement on the ground, what they do, what they are fighting for, etc. I assure you none of them are interested in murdering anarchists or teaming up with fascists.

Also if you look here http://www.redspark.nu/en/category/peoples-war/philippines/ there is a lot of news articles from the party and organizations associated with it, and on the actions carried out by the party, by the NPA (New Peoples Army), the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines), and by mass organizations (feminist orgs, workers orgs, farmers orgs, student orgs, christians for national liberation orgs, etc etc )

Also of special note is that most if not all genuine modern communist movements, the leader isn't really in any prominent position in the media or has any real special authority, and they change often and in the philippines in particular here there's no personality cults, as far as i know. Nor india or turkey. The party there in the philippines has split and reconstituted itself multiple times over issues of opportunism and counter-revolution - which certainly shows it is messy, yes, as is class struggle and as is life, but shows genuine commitment to revolution also that it has not degenerated into a counter-revolutionary party

the methods used by the peasants to hit the landlords politically are as follows:

....

"Crowning" the landlords and parading them through the villages..

Locking up the landlords in the county jail..

"Banishment". The peasants have no desire to banish the most notorious criminals among the local tyrants and evil gentry, but would rather arrest or execute them. Afraid of being arrested or executed, they run away. In counties where the peasant movement is well developed, almost all the important local tyrants and evil gentry have fled, and this amounts to banishment...

Execution. This is confined to the worst local tyrants and evil gentry and is carried out by the peasants jointly with other sections of the people.

Taking over these old armed forces is one way in which the peasants are building up their own armed forces. A new way is through the setting up of spear corps under the peasant associations. The spears have pointed, double-edged blades mounted on long shafts, and there are now 100,000 of these weapons in the county of Hsianghsiang alone. Other counties like Hsiangtan, ... have 70,000-80,000, or 50,000-60.000. or 30,000-40,000 each. Every county where there is a peasant movement has a rapidly growing spear corps. These peasants thus armed form an "irregular household militia". This multitude equipped with spears, which is larger than the old armed forces mentioned above, is a new-born armed power the mere sight of which makes the local tyrants and evil gentry tremble. The revolutionary authorities in Hunan should see to it that it is built up on a really extensive scale among the more than twenty million peasants in the seventy-five counties of the province, that every peasant, whether young or in his prime, possesses a spear, and that no restrictions are imposed as though a spear were something dreadful. Anyone who is scared at the sight of the spear corps is indeed a weakling! Only the local tyrants and evil gentry are frightened of them, but no revolutionaries should take fright.

This all sounds terribly like a dictatorship of the exploited over the exploiters, does it not? What is your opposition to this? Who is being ruled here? Who's rule are you opposing?

The idea that "the aim is to make the entirety of the oppressed classes into rulers to eliminate the rulers" is utterly nonsensical - create rulers to get rid of rulers??? how can that make any logical sense?

As far as I know about Chinese history, Maoist China was extremely oppressive to everyone - peasant and bourgeoisie alike. Even party members lived in such a state of fear and surveillance, that one could hardly call it revolutionary.

With a large leap into the abyss one might argue, as you seem to, that such oppression was required to do away with the bourgeois tendencies in society and was perhaps a better alternative than had things continued under the KMT, but given the nature of China today it obviously failed in doing away with the bourgeoisie. The rule of the oppressed became just another system of oppressive rulers that did not do away with capitalism.

In short, the failure of Maoist China was its reproduction of the bourgeois state, not its erasure, it just created new rulers/oppressors.

I was in Maoist China, I've seen it first hand. There was nothing communist about it.

Like the liberal state, the ML(M) state is a mechanism of advancing and protecting the interests of a few over the many. Both imagine anarchy is their antithesis, their greatest fear. Liberalism counters it by meaningless reforms to foster greater "inclusion", making people believe they have a stake in the state. ML(M)ism counters it through enforced conversion, surveillance, and fear.

Don't confuse your great man theory with communism, a society based on the rule of the masses.

What does that make the peasants if not masters of their own society?

If you do infact, enforce your rule over cops, you do become a ruler - no longer do the police have authority over you, you have authority over them. The aim is to eliminate the police so that there is no need for authority. But eliminating police is not as simple as throwing rocks at them and declaring communism.

this does not even necessarily exist in maoist oriented mass organizations such as those run by peasants in revolutionary communist movements today - the organisations themselves are autonomous except for being under the political leadership of the communist party - which itself must keep itself and be kept at the level, guidance, oversight, i.e proletarian outlook of the broad masses

certainly a certain amount of hierarchy exists, but ultimately to be entirely against hierarchy is nothing more than petit-bourgeois individualism and wastes more time than it saves, and will not result in better decisions 9/10 times. This shit is time-sensitive and what we do is proven to work efficiently and is being improved upon constantly.

Of note here is the mass-line and cultural revolution and the overall focus of Maoism on the masses - we have learned from the commandist style of the past and attempted to rectify this.

[deleted] wrote at November 8, 2017 at 8:00 PM
(edited at February 10, 2018 at 2:32 PM)

If you drive police out of an area - you have enforced your dominance over said police - How is there not authority involved if the police are not allowed, are not able to enter the neighborhood in question?

Anarchist, why do you have such a liberal conception of the state and why do you not recognize that any anarchist society, by necessity, will require organizations that will, whether you call them state orgs or not, suppress the exploiting classes of the old society?

I don't think one would need to do that if they just use a lot of micronations; I'm personally planning a place where if it ever is taken over by capitalists, one can just fork and split away.